Louisiana cowgirl, Josie Conner, made her mark on professional rodeo when she was the 2022 Resistol Rookie of the Year and she has qualified for the National Finals Breakaway Roping all three years that she has been a member of the WPRA. Her equine partner for two of those years, including 2024, was Dutch.
“Dutch is super special to my family and I. I’ve had him for wo or three years now and, you know, we had a really great season and I contribute all of that to him and I’m glad that the other breakaway ropers voted for him, I really appreciate it,” Conner said.
Dutch is a horse that was trained in the norhwestern part of the country and he had plenty of success in the tie-down roping that includes arena records before becoming Conner’s No. 1 horse.
“I got to prepate Dutch a lot this winter... So I really just got it in his brain that his job is to leave the corner as hard as he can and run as fast as he can into the position and then he’s just got the God given talent that he can go from running as hard as he can to stopping as quick as he can and breaking the rope as fast as pretty much any breakaway horse,” she said.
Conner rode Dutch at 72 out of 77 rodeos that she entered this year and of the 72, they took home the win at 14 of them. She enters her third NFBR as the No. 13 cowgirl in the World but she has the No. 1 Horse of the Year to back in the box with.
